HONOLULU — The Hawaii soccer workforce’s exhibiting within the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl could have lasting advantages, UH Athletic Director Matt Elliott hopes.
And although the first-year division chief couldn’t outright say it, which may embrace an prolonged future with coach Timmy Chang.
UH introduced Friday that the Hawaii Bowl, by which Chang’s Rainbow Warriors made a dramatic comeback from 21 points down to beat Cal 35-31, was seen by 2.7 million individuals, the biggest viewers for the ESPN-operated occasion since 2013.
The sport featured a marquee storyline of Chang going against his former UH teammate Nick Rolovich, who served as Cal’s interim head coach, and featured a battle of native beginning quarterbacks from Ewa Beach in UH’s Micah Alejado and Cal’s Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele.
It resulted in dramatic trend with UH backup quarterback Luke Weaver tossing the game-winning landing to receiver Nick Cenacle with 10 seconds left.
Elliott spoke to Spectrum News about the soccer season’s aftermath as he settled in to observe the UH men’s volleyball team’s 2026 season opener against NJIT at Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center on Friday.
“I think we all expected that this is a storyline that would be very appealing to people,” Elliott stated of the bowl sport’s viewership. “But then the game itself just had so much excitement and I think it probably retained that viewership all the way to the end, which is great for our program. Just to have everybody see us all over the country.”
The bowl win introduced UH to 9-4 — simply the sixteenth time in this system’s 109-season historical past that it hit the nine-win threshold.
Spectrum News requested Elliott about the opportunity of a contract extension for Chang, who was given a one-year rollover by then-interim-AD Lois Manin heading into the 2025 season — making 2026 the ultimate yr on his present deal. Chang is coming off the primary profitable season and bowl sport of his four-year tenure.
“I’m not going to talk about specific personnel matters because I just want to respect coaches and their families and all those things,” Elliott stated, “but the reality is we have an outstanding coach and this is somebody we think should be our coach.”
Elliott lauded UH’s soccer’s upward development at the same time as this system should play on the on-campus Ching Complex for a minimum of one other three years because it awaits a everlasting stadium in Halawa.
“To bookend our football season with those two wins — you start with Stanford, you finish with Cal and to be able to be in a place to say you beat two Power 4 schools, this program’s clearly going in the right direction, and now, hey, we’re right back at it,” he stated. “(The) transfer portal’s already open, you’re thinking about NIL (Name, Image and Likeness payments) every single day so we can get ready and continue to build on that next year.”
A postgame brawl between UH and Cal gamers marred among the feel-good final result on Christmas Eve. UH cornerback Virdel Edwards II fell on a fumbled ball on the Golden Bears’ closing desperation play to seal the win, and pushing and shoving rapidly escalated between gamers close to the Cal sideline.
The workforce’s teaching staffs, members of whom shared ties, greeted one another warmly on the sphere, and the altercation appeared to have calmed down after a couple of minutes. But widely seen social media video appeared to point out Cal lineman Jordan Spasojevic-Moko sucker-punch UH defensive again Justin Sinclair, touching off one other spherical of hostilities that took a number of extra minutes to defuse.
Spasojevic-Moko issued a general apology on social media on Dec. 30 that included the road, “I recognize that my involvement contributed to the situation, and I take responsibility for my role and not removing myself sooner. I regret how the incident unfolded and understand that I am held to a high standard as a student-athlete.” He didn’t point out Hawaii or Sinclair within the apology.
Through an athletics spokesperson, Cal declined to provide a touch upon the postgame incident to Spectrum News.
Spectrum News requested Elliott about it on Friday.
“We were in communication,” Elliott stated of his Cal counterparts Jay Larson and Jenny Simon-O’Neill. “I spoke to them a couple times. You know, we all share the same sentiments. Nobody wants to see that. You don’t want to be in a situation where there’s any bad blood after a game. At the end of the day, you saw the apology from one of the Cal players, that was probably an unnecessary act and you’re only seeing clips. I appreciate that apology and I think … we don’t need to see that kind of stuff, but if it happens, the reality is how do we move on from it, how do we learn from it.”
Elliott, who formally succeeded Craig Angelos (and Manin) in July, stated he was “thrilled” with UH Athletics because the calendar yr flipped to 2026, lauding UH’s basketball groups and the beginning of one other males’s volleyball season with nationwide championship aspirations. He additionally talked about smaller applications like seaside volleyball, girls’s water polo and males’s and ladies’s swimming and diving.
“There’s a sense and a level of appreciation and joy that goes along with sports here in Hawaii that is just magic. I love it,” Elliott stated. “I love every second of it.”
In December, he launched a four-pronged method for fans to donate to the faculties’ athletics applications.
“Really good response,” Elliott stated. “I’d say extraordinary investment in people wanting to say ‘we believe in this program, we want to retain these student-athletes.’ And I’d say the financial commitment has come in with that. So we’re making strides there too.”
There stays a big divide to bridge with energy applications. The most outstanding of a number of UH gamers to enter the portal, huge receiver Jackson Harris, committed to LSU and new Tigers coach Lane Kiffin on Sunday. He is anticipated to get NIL pay within the mid-to-high six figures for 2026.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports activities scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He may be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.